Back by popular demand ;)

I haven't posted anything in the past month, because I literally had nothing to blog about. My craftiness has reached a stop.
It had to be sacrificed while I study for ... no idea what it's called - the exam you have to take after having worked in your field for a year. State exam? Expert exam? The exam that is sucking the life out of me and taking away precious time I could be spending crafting? Yeah, that one.

Anyway, no craftiness from me, at least nothing until Christmas.
But here are some random stuff I did ages ago, and never posted.

A crochet rectangle... thing. Just another reminder that I need to move past the damn single crochet, and learn how to work in the round, so that the stuff I crochet aren't flat rectangles, but cute toys. But at least I found a use for this thing. It goes really well with my couch.
See how amazingly useful a crochet rectangle can be? ;)


Next up - a wall decal I did to add some decoration to the wall above the couch. I cut it out of some self-adhesive wallpaper, just started cutting, with no plan whatsoever. Now that I look at it, it might need something else. But I have no idea what. A flower somewhere? More leaves? Random swirls? Or should I just leave it like it is?


The wall next to that one is still bare, I plan to add some framed art to it. When I find something I'd like to put there, that is.

And we're back to geometrical shapes. A potholder. Love the mushroom fabric. Of course, I managed to spill cocoa on it, the very first time I put it to use. Now it's a stained potholder. But you can admire it here in its fresh-off-the-sewing-machine stage.


OK, that's it from me for November. I'm going back to studying. Or banging my head against the table frustrated over the fact that nothing I read sinks in.

100

Wow! I reached a milestone in my blogging career. 100 posts! I feel like I should bake a cake with the number 100 in chocolate frosting. How about a little retrospective on my crafting instead?

It all started some six years ago, when I stumbled onto Craftster. Amazed with all the projects that other people posted, I decided to try some of them out for myself. The very first thing I tried was sewing - there was a great tutorial for a Jordy Bag. I sewed mine by hand. From an old t-shirt and corduroy pants. It didn't look like much, but I was proud of the fact that I basically made something from otherwise useless stuff. That's a great feeling - the one you get when you finish a project. Practically the next day I went and bought a sewing machine.


The sewing bug had me for a while, but then I sort of abandoned the hobby when a new and shinier one presented itself.

So over the last 6 years, I've dabbled in almost every crafty activity there is. Here's a list, if you're interested : stenciling, bag sewing, jewelly making, Polymer clay, knitting, bookmaking and paper crafts, crochet (tried and failed miserably), embroidery, cross stitch. Lately everyday life kept me too busy to craft, but I feel the bug again. After all, I need to have something to blog about in the next 100 posts.

Thank you for reading! ;-)

What to do with mini cross stitch

Make a small fragile keychain you'll probably never use?

Oh well, I did it anyway. It only took me about five minutes too, so yay for instant crafty gratification.

And here's the construction, dead simple. I used a small plastic ring, that probably had some use in plumbing, a little felt, glue and my second cross stitched thing ever.


Basically you just glue your image down on a felt rectangle. Fold some felt over the center of the ring, glue that too, then cut a window in your remaining rectangle and do some more gluing down.

Mine turned out flimsy because I used thin felt. I probably should have added some cardboard between the cross stitch and the back, for sturdiness.
But like I sad, I'll probably never use it. I keep my keys on a little converse shoe I got from a street vendor. It red, just like my real chucks. I call that matching accessories ;)

Mix, pour, wait, then paint

The title pretty much describes what I did with plaster.

I got it ages ago, the kind you pour, along with exactly two molds - one is flowers and fruit themed, the other is Christmas ( a bunch of snowmen, Santas and bears with presents).
Let me tell you, those molds are expensive. And not really worth it, unless you want to make the same motives over and over again. Which I just might have to, because I still have a lot of plaster left.

Anyway, here are my forms, all dried and waiting to be painted. Ideally, I would sand the edges a bit, but I was out of sandpaper.


Painted and waiting for me to glue some magnets on the back. I only had three, so the other ones will have to sit and wait for me to go on a craft supplies shopping spree.

I used Decorlack by Marabu to paint them, which I wouldn't really recommend for plaster. I think it's better to use something that the plaster will aborb, like regular acrylics, tempera or even watercolor. They will blend better, and make your fruit look more real.

And an obligatory action shot. This kind of looks like a commercial for Candy fridges, but believe me, it's not. This fridges makes such bizzare and loud noises that I kind of hate it. But hey, at least it's a good surface for my magnets.

Christmas Crafts

First up: A walnut shell advent wreath, idea stolen from Unikat. I painted mine silver, because that's the only color I had. Gold would have been a much better choice, but I didn't want to buy extra paint. The shells are hot glued on a cardboard circle covered in newspaper. I added tea light candles,and some mini red balls to jazz it up a bit. It was boring without it.
I also made some snowflakes, as Christmas tree decorations. The idea is from Martha Stewart.Yup, Martha Stewart made me buy glitter. My snowflakes look nothing like hers. Maybe it's because I'm too stingy to use two kinds of glitter. This was completely messy, there was glitter everywhere. Plus, it falls off from the snowflakes - I'm thinking it won't be long before they go totally bald.



Next: Fabric drawstring bags, big enough to fit a pair of socks. I did a terrible job sewing these. I guess I lost my sewing mojo. Not that I ever had all that much mojo to begin with. I stenciled them with silver fabric paint and,wait for it...stamping ink. From a stamp pad. Why buy green fabric paint, when you have a little stamp pad? Because the damn ink bleeds, that's why! Overall, using ink as stencil paint was a stupid idea.

On a more happier note, one that doesn't involve crafty disasters - it's snowing. Not much, but still, snow ;-)

Picture a box

"Picture a box. You know something about boxes, don't you John? Now picture a box that you can wish anything into. What would you say to that?"
(Ben to Locke, Lost)
Well, I don't know about Locke, but I'd wish for lots of yarn. I'm kind of feeling the need to knit again. But until I decide on a project and buy the yarn for it, I'm crafting with shoe boxes and paper napkins. Also known as decoupage. The result is in no way a magic box, only a wrinkled, decorated...erm, box.
I have yet to decide what I'm going to put in it. Too small for yarn, too big for knickknacks. It would be great for gift wrapping (or is that gift boxing?) come Christmas.

Top of the not so magic box:

Things from felt

I've been busy crafting with felt. Actually, trying to get rid of some of the felt sheets I bought ages ago. I only had three colors, yellow, blue and green, so I tried to combine them the best I could.
I don't know why, but when I think of felt I always imagine something cute and small. That's why all the stuff I made is tiny. This didn't help with my "get rid of felt" mission. I still have plenty of it left, and no idea what to do with it.
Anyways, onto the felt stuff:
Some random circles that could be used on hair clips or possibly other projects.
A book for my sewing needles - about 7 cm tall.

A notepad made form scratch. I used an old cereal box for the notepad covers and some printer paper that was only printed on one side for the...erm, paper. I cut it all up to match the size of my felt dino cover and assembled it together. I used white glue to hold the paper together. So far so good.



Kanzashi flower. It's not felt, but it's cute and small. I still need to add a button to cover up the messy center. I have my mind set on yellow. Sadly, there are absolutely no yellow buttons in my collection. I'll have to go out and buy some.

As for knitting news: My purple-maroonish cardigan is finished, blocked and waiting for me to take some pictures of it.

Charm necklace and yup, more crochet

I was at a local craft store, checking out some beads, when I stumbled upon these cute charms. They were selling them together with a flower charm, and I just had to buy it. I finished the necklace in about 15 minutes, most of which were spent trying to figure out exactly where to cut the chain. I added some beads on the little chain in the middle, but overall I just tried to keep it simple. It closes in the front, with a lobster clasp. I have absolutely no outfit in my closet that I can combine it with. Time to go shopping! ;-)
Click on the pic if you want a better look.

I'm still at it with crochet. Simple, easy, beginner crochet. I think I finally figured out the single crochet and double crochet stitches. The rest just confuses me. I used my scrap yarn to practice and ended up with a bunch of coasters. Well, three, if you want the exact number. The purple ones are just basic single crochet squares, about 10,5 cm wide. As for the blue one, it was supposed to be a flower. I started out with a pattern, but after a while it became obvious that I have no idea how to read a crochet pattern. So I improvised. A lot. I made some mistakes, so it's far from perfect, but still not too shabby for my first try.

Stitch Markers

I'm taking a small break from knitting... by preparing for more knitting. I made some stitch markers, in order to get rid of these weird plastic beads I bought couple of months ago, when making beaded jewelry was my top hobby. Pretty colors, but every bead has 3 holes. Actually, two regular holes on each side, and one semi-hole right in the middle of the bead. Why the third hole? It doesn't even go all the way trough. Guess it's a mystery.
Anyway, for these markers I used aforementioned beads and some thick wire, 1 mm in diameter, if I remember correctly. The thickness of the wire made it really hard to bend it into a nice round shape, so eventually I gave up and left them in the shape of a noose. The copper colored wire is much thinner, hence the braided, sad attempt on the far left.

"Hanging" shot:

Adventures in fake silkscreening

Stenciling is fun, but cutting out the stencils can be a real pain in the ass. I hate that part. With a passion. The best thing about stenciling is peeling off the stencil and admiring your creation. Love that part.
For a while now I've been thinking of trying out silk screening. No cutting out tiny details. But it does involve chemicals and expensive ink. Ink that I can find anywhere here. Plus, I don't have a screen. So I gave up on the idea completely. Until I found this here tutorial.
Apparently, you can transfer an image onto a t-shirt super simple and super cheap. All you need is a photocopied image (toner works the mojo) and paint thinner or acetone. I went with the acetone, since I already had it around the house.
I printed out some images and went to a photocopy place to copy them. The lady working there asked me if they were designs for a tattoo and whether I'm getting one. Sure I am ;-)
Went home, pulled out a t-shirt and some old knickers and hoped the thing works. It kinda does.
But only on old knickers.

I'm guessing it's better to have a white t-shirt. Or more toner on the image. Or maybe the acetone doesn't cut it and I should go and get lacquer thinner.
Oh well, at least I learned a new crafty skill.